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#EyeCareForAll Photo Competition launched

MEDIA RELEASE

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) invites amateur and professional photographers around the world to join us in highlighting the impact of eye health in people’s lives, by taking part in an International Photography Competition with theme, ‘Eye care for all’.

With support from Bayer Health Care, the photo competition will draw attention to universal eye health coverage, especially for those who are vulnerable and most in need. With the theme, ‘Eye care for all’ IAPB encourages you to share images that highlight our successes and also document unmet need. ‘Eye Health’ also includes rehabilitation and assistive services for those with irreversible vision loss.

For World Sight Day (8 October 2015) the call to action is also “Eye care for all”. World Sight Day, an international day of awareness about avoidable blindness and its prevention,is an important advocacy and communications opportunity for the eye health community. It is a great time to engage with a wider audience – a patient’s family, those who seldom get an eye exam, diabetics – and showcase why eye health needs everybody’s attention.

Participation in the competition is open worldwide – upload a photo that best exemplifies “eye care for all”, give it a title or caption, clearly note your name, profession and contact details on the competition micro-site.

The submissions can be shared on Facebook and Twitter to allow others to like/share them – the more social favour; the more votes (use hashtag #EyeCareForAll). Submissions will be open for public voting on IAPB’s social pages, and the pictures with the most votes will be shortlisted for review by a panel. The competition will be open till 8 October 2015 - World Sight Day. The panel will then choose two winners and 5 runners-up, who will be announced at the IAPB Council of Members meetings in China on 14 October 2015.

The professional prize will be a fantastic opportunity to visit and photo-document an eye care project. With IAPB’s members working on every continent, eradicating millennia-old microbes or 21st century conditions, the project visit will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The amateur prize will be a Nikon D3300 camera–a great first step into the world of professional photography. There will also be a special prize for children. Runners-up will be included in a roll call at the Council meetings and all winners will be part of a photo exhibition at IAPB’s 10th General Assembly in Durban, South Africa in 2016.

Photo submissions that showcase the theme “Eye care for all” can also be tagged with a number of sub-themes, like ‘children’ or ‘families’ (a full list is available on the competition micro-site).

“Eye care is an important, but often neglected, component of our health”, notes Joanna Conlon, Director of Development. “What can we do to ensure that everyone has access to eye health? How do we celebrate our hard-won successes in service delivery? I think this photo competition is a great way to shine some light on such questions.”

“We are delighted to partner with IAPB, support world sight day and the photo competition” said Dr Rafiq Hasan, VP and Global Head of Ophthalmology, Bayer HealthCare. “This collaboration reinforces our commitment to working with the community to raise awareness and address unmet needs [in eye health].”

The photo competition will be a key focus for IAPB during its World Sight Day (8 October 2015) celebrations this year. For more information visit the competition micro-site.